White Guard

The first complete and accurate English translation of Bulgakovâs classic novel, accompanied by a substantial historical introduction
 
âBulgakovâs novel not only leads us into a majestic, more-than-1,000-year-old metropolis, but also gives us an understanding of how, in a single day, the world can change as radically as if decades had passed.ââ"Marci Shore, The Atlantic
 
âBulgakovâs novel evokes the suffering of the conflict and the still greater horrors that lay ahead.ââ"Joshua Rubenstein, Wall Street Journal
 
White Guard, Mikhail Bulgakovâs semi-autobiographical first novel, is the story of the Turbin family in Kiev in 1918. Alexei, Elena, and Nikolka Turbin have just lost their motherâ"their father had died years beforeâ"and find themselves plunged into the chaotic civil war that erupted in the Ukraine in the wake of the Russian Revolution. In the context of this familyâs personal loss and the social turmoil surrounding them, Bulgakov creates a brilliant picture of the existential crises brought about by the revolution and the loss of social, moral, and political certainties. He confronts the reader with the bewildering cruelty that ripped Russian life apart at the beginning of the last century as well as with the extraordinary ways in which the Turbins preserved their humanity.
 
In this volume Marian Schwartz, a leading translator, offers the first complete and accurate translation of the definitive original text of Bulgakovâs novel. She includes the famous dream sequence, omitted in previous translations, and beautifully solves the stylistic issues raised by Bulgakovâs ornamental prose. Readers with an interest in Russian literature, culture, or history will welcome this superb translation of Bulgakovâs important early work.
 
This edition also contains an informative historical essay by Evgeny Dobrenko.